That's why it was so disturbing to hear a report on the radio last week discussing the unintended consequences of various local, state and national efforts to recycle the hazardous materials used in high-tech gear.

Here's a little background. Picture tubes in CRT monitors can contain between 5 and 10 pounds of lead. Many computer circuit boards contain lead, mercury and other toxins. Large amounts of plastics are used in computer cases, keyboards, monitors, speakers and mice.

The process of dealing with these materials even in the most responsible ways can lead to worker exposure to toxins at unhealthy levels. What might happen if these aging computer components aren't dealt with responsibly?

I discovered a recent report issued by the Basel Action Network, a project of Seattle-based Earth Economics and currently published on the home page of the Computer TakeBack Campaign at www.computertakeback.com. It tells a distressing tale of what seems at first glance a win-win situation in which older computer systems are handed down to African nations in an effort to bridge the digital divide that separates the north and south, the rich and the poor.

In theory, developing nations can either put this stuff to use right away or repair it. Though such computer repair is an increasingly uneconomical practice here in the U.S., it's feasible in the developing world because of the available cheap labor.

However, up to 75 percent of the high-tech waste turns out to be useless except for the money to be made disposing of it. Nations like Nigeria, for example, place hundreds of thousands of tons in landfills around the country. In order to reduce the space it takes up in these landfills, Nigerians engage in uncontrolled burning of computer components.

This process releases all kinds of toxins, including dioxin, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals into both the air and the ground water. And these abysmal practices reach beyond Africa to China, India and Pakistan.

What's particularly distressing is the fact that the United States is the prime source of this high-tech garbage because our government refused to ratify the Basel Convention, a treaty in the late 1980s that made much of this exportation of toxic waste illegal. It has been signed by 165 countries.

Only three countries in the world have failed to ratify the Basel Convention: Haiti, Afghanistan and the United States. We're in good company, aren't we?

We also fail to implement Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development treaties meant to control the exportation of hazardous materials. Even Canada, a Basel signatory, plays fast and loose with e-waste.

Europe has its own culpability. While having signed the Basel Convention as well as the agreement known as the WEEE (Waste from Electronic and Electrical Equipment) directive, its failure to provide any enforcement has led to a lapse in standards. Thus Europe contributes to the growing nightmare.

Beyond the failure to sign or implement enforcement of environmental controls on computer hazardous waste, the United States is missing a huge opportunity to be a leader in the field of clean recycling technology. I've never forgotten former Vice-President Al Gore's visionary stance nearly two decades ago when he declared that getting out front with environmental controls and technology was not only morally appropriate but also made good business sense.

If the U.S. became the No. 1 producer of advanced recycling technology, it's good for both business and the world. We could then export that technology along with our trash. That's truly win-win.

General Motors recently announced the cutting of up to 30,000 jobs over the next few years, in order to be competitive, supposedly, in the global economy. Yet it should be painfully obvious that relying on sales of increasingly unpopular trucks and SUVs instead of developing alternatives using hybrid technology is a principal reason for GM's problems.

Lost opportunities abound in an America increasingly adrift without coherent environmental and energy policies. One initiative promulgated by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition is that laws be passed requiring manufacturers to reduce use of hazardous materials in computers and agree to take back their high-tech products at the end of their lifecycles.

It's a start and a long-overdue one at that. I also hope our local recycling programs look into the ultimate resting place of our own e-waste and make the appropriate moral choices.